Simple
by onekisstotakewithmex
Summary: No one said it would be this easy; but maybe it is. And even if Kate never saw it coming, she still can't help but give thanks on her wedding day; big fancy wedding or not. Based on an AU that Kibbs got secretly married in season one. Kibbs, set in season one.


The one thing that Kate found hard to believe was that it had all started with a bottle of bourbon. She had never known that the rest of her life would be changed by a simple birthday present of a bottle of bourbon. She had stopped by Gibbs' place to bring him a birthday present. Getting themselves drunk on the finest bourbon her government salary could buy, she had accidentally confessed that she did in fact have the teensiest, tiniest crush on her boss.

To her shock, he'd admitted it was mutual. And now, well, here they were.

It was May 14, 2004. And tomorrow, her life was going to change.

But for now, they were on a stakeout. She was a little hurt that Gibbs had set her and McGee up in the building they were watching from, while he and Tony were tracking down a lead, but he had promised her that they would be on the same schedule tomorrow.

She had snorted at that, but allowed him to kiss her in the privacy of their car, before speeding off with Tony. It wasn't as though Kate minded McGee- she was fond of him as a matter of fact- but he was so young, it was hard to decide what to talk about. They made awkward conversation for a few minutes, and then she'd referenced _Back to the Future_ by accident, and it had led to them both relaxing.

"Kate?"

She turned to him, and watched him yawn. "Yeah, Tim, what is it?"

"I heard Abby say something about you liking to write."

"Oh, yeah, I write a bit… here and there," she had no idea where the conversation was going. "Do you?"

"Yeah. I'm writing a book about the team."

"I'd be careful if I were you, Tim. That's a dangerous idea."

"Why?"

She stared over her rapidly cooling coffee, rolling her eyes. "You know Tony. He'll be merciless."

McGee visibly deflated. "Damn. You're right."

"I know."

"Why did Gibbs pair you with me?"

"He didn't want you coming back to the Yard with a Sharpie mustache and a wedgie," she replied dryly.

"Hazing?" he asked, looking alarmed. "I'm paired with Tony tomorrow."

"Tony knows that there's a time and place for that, Tim, even if he is a little juvenile." She was wondering herself, she had to admit, about why Gibbs had paired up her and McGee. "And maybe he thinks that I'll keep you in line."

"You are intimidating. Nearly as much as he is," McGee offered. "How many times _has_ he been married?"

"Three or four. I don't know. I've never met any of his ex-wives."

"Oh," he seemed almost disappointed. "Agent DiNozzo said-,"

"I know what Tony said, but he's a big fan of scuttlebutt, Tim. Half the things that come out of his mouth are fiction. The other half are bad movie references."

"You reference movies."

"So did Gibbs when I met him. Not my point, Tim. Tony and I haven't met the exes yet."

Tim shook his head, "And here I thought he was the office gossip."

"He is, but he means well. Most of the time." Her stomach growled and she sighed, "I should go grab us some dinner."

Tim held out a bag, "I grabbed peanuts from the vending machine before we left. Want some?"

She took a handful. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

Grudgingly she passed over the bag of gummy worms she'd had stashed in her bag, "Here."

He bumped his bag of peanuts against the gummy worms in a half-hearted toast. "My mother would be horrified," he teased.

"So would mine. Such a well-rounded meal as this, she'd be disgusted with me. I'd get some nattering lecture about how I need to keep my figure."

"Well," Tim was smiling in the dark room, "At least that isn't a problem for me."

"Tim, you look fine," she smiled over at him, as he took some gummy worms. "Sometimes on the job, a stakeout means eating peanuts and gummy worms for dinner. Sometimes it means Chinese- or if it's Tony- burgers. And sometimes it means going for a day and a half on just coffee and breath mints."

"Really?"

"I'm pretty sure that it's how Gibbs gets through stakeouts." Well, that, and they were usually too busy talking to eat anyway. He always made sure that she ate, even if he was less concerned with filling his own stomach.

Her phone buzzed and she glanced at it. _Speak of the devil,_ she thought with a grin. "Sorry Tim, I'll be right back."

"Sure. I'll be here with my healthy nutritious dinner," he joked. She smiled, happy that he was comfortable enough to make jokes around her.

She answered the phone in what passed for a bathroom- scummy tile and a dirty floor- trying not to smile. "Hey. Is there a reason I'm here with McGee?"

"Well, Katie, it's tradition."

"Pair the two newest members of the team for stakeout?" she asked, shaking her head. "I'm not sure that's very fair to either of us."

"Do ya have a problem with McGee, Kate?"

"If I say yes, will it make a difference?"

She could tell he was smiling. "No."

"Didn't think so. So what's this bullshit about a tradition?"

"It has nothing to do with stakeouts, Katie. Don't ya know the old one? The one about the groom and bride not seeing each other the night before the wedding?"

"I would have thought after four weddings that you'd dispense with the formalities."

"And I have. Mostly. But I think I've had enough bad luck, so I'm not takin' any chances, Katie. Not now that I finally convinced you." He was definitely smiling now.

"So you're saying…" she paused, her brain trying to catch up. "That… tomorrow?"

"Katie, after what happened with that bastard…" he trailed off. "Can't live another day without ya."

"We both knew what we signed up for, Gibbs. It never bothered you before."

"I didn't come so close to losing you before!" he said, in a flash of anger. And then she heard him inhale shakily, "If ya don't want to…"

"No, I do. It's just not how I pictured it, that's all."

"You wanted a big wedding." It wasn't a question.

"I dreamed…" she shrugged, knowing that he couldn't see her. "It doesn't matter, Gibbs. It's all stupid, trivial stuff like a big wedding cake and a fancy dress and a proper altar."

"Will you accept being an old bastard's wife instead? A small wedding?"

"I know what I'm getting into." She smiled to herself. "Jethro, all I need is someone who will steal my coffee in the morning, and have my back. I don't need a fancy wedding for that."

"See if you're sayin' that in ten years," he snorted, and she knew he was smiling too. He cleared his throat. "I love ya, Katie."

A sudden lump of emotion was in her own throat, making it hard to swallow. Her eyes burned with unshed tears. Sure, it wasn't how she'd imagined it, but Gibbs was right; every day could be the one where they wouldn't come back. She would take it now. She sank to the floor, hugging her knees. "I love you too, Jethro."

"I'll see you tomorrow. Night Katie."

"Night." She hung up and sat there for a second, her head resting on her knees.

And then felt the smile spread across her face. No doubt when McGee and DiNozzo were doing their own surveillance tomorrow was when they'd be going to the courthouse. She only hoped she'd get a chance to get changed and sleep before then. _Oh God,_ she thought longingly, _Sleep._

 **XNCISX**

"Gibbs, if you keep looking over at me, you're going to crash the car, and neither of us is getting married."

He grinned to himself, "Sorry."

"You're not nervous, are you?" she asked, incredulous.

"Katie, ya… ya look beautiful."

She was dressed in a simple white sundress edged with lace and a bow on the back, her hair in a low ponytail with a few sparkly barrettes. It was simple, but the response it had provoked from Gibbs was noticeable.

She blushed. "Oh."

"And you're especially cute when you're blushin'." He pulled up in front of the courthouse, killing the engine and turning to her, holding out a hand. "Ready?"

"Definitely. Let's go."

She watched as he reached around the seat, before handing her a bouquet of white roses and cherry blossoms. It was such an unexpectedly gesture, like the ones he rarely made that always caught her by surprise. It made her eyes well up, and she smiled. "What's this?"

He did his half-shrug. "Every bride should have flowers on her weddin' day, Katie. Even if they are getting married to their boss, at the courthouse."

She giggled, and leaned over, kissing him on the cheek, "It's perfect, Jethro."

She got out of the car, before walking around and grabbing his hand, the two of them walking up the steps to the courthouse. If she closed her eyes, she could pretend that there was a veil drifting behind her, her dress going to the floor, and she was walking to the altar.

She didn't have to pretend that she was out of her mind with excitement though. Opening her eyes, she caught Gibbs checking his watch. "Already bored?" she teased.

He grinned at her, a mere imitation of his real smile, the one he gave her over bourbon, over dinner, and when they woke up side by side in the morning. "No, just making sure we're on time."

He held open the door of the courthouse for her to walk through. They went up to the office, and met with the registrar, a Justice Fraser.

"Do you two have the rings?" he asked.

Gibbs nodded, standing across from her. She handed the mini bouquet to one of the witnesses, as the registrar smiled down at them. "Do you need help with the words?"

"I think we got this," Gibbs told him, "I've done this before, ya know."

It was so unexpected that she giggled, seeing the look of triumph on his face at easing her nerves. His hands were steady under hers, and she knew her own hands were shaking, her heart overflowing with love for the man in front of her. She had never seen it coming, had been blindsided by the love she felt for him.

"Agent Gibbs, you may begin," he said.

Gibbs pulled the simple gold band from his pocket, and smiled down at her, before clearing his throat. "I, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, take you, Caitlin Todd, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, for as long as we both shall live."

She felt tears welling up in her eyes, and one slipped down her face, as he slid the ring onto her finger.

The registrar turned to her and nodded, "Miss Todd?"

She offered him the best smile, and hoped he wouldn't change his mind, sliding the ring down his finger. "I, Caitlin Todd, take you, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, to be my lawfully wedded husband… to have and to hold from this day forward, in sickness and in health, in good times… and in bad. For as long as we both shall live."

Was it really so simple? The smile on Gibbs' face and the matching one spreading across her own told her _yes,_ sometimes it really was that simple.

"Now, by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride," he nodded to Gibbs, who stepped forward, cupping Kate's face in his hands, and delivering a kiss that made her go weak at the knees, staring up at him when he let go, before jumping at him, and pulling him into another kiss, their second as husband and wife.

And just like that, her life was different. It was new. And it was exciting.

"Hey," Gibbs asked the registrar, "Can you take a picture of us?"

The registrar looked gratified, "Of course."

Gibbs shot a sly smile her way, "I always want to remember this day. The day I actually convinced Kate Todd to marry me."

"Wipe that smirk off your face, Jethro."

"Never, Katie. God, I love you."

"I love you too."

They headed off for pictures, their hands clasped tightly together.

 **XNCISX**

It was their turn for a stakeout, and they were back in their work clothes. Kate had slipped the wedding ring into her jacket pocket, but it was evening and they had been married for the last six hours. And now they were back in the dirty apartment.

Gibbs stood up, stretching, and she allowed herself to stare. It was just the two of them. She slipped her shiny new wedding ring back on.

"Ahem," she turned to see that Gibbs was holding out a hand. "Katie, may I have this dance?"

"Gibbs, we're on a stakeout," she laughed.

"Just think, if you were having your big wedding, we would have a big reception, and we would have a first dance. We didn't get the fancy wedding… but damn it, Katie, you're getting your dance."

"Okay. We don't have music," she said logically.

He pulled out the beat up old radio, "Don't worry about it."

"Oh, Jethro, you old sap."

He turned on the radio, fiddling with it for a second, until the second that no more static came through, instead the sweet, clear notes of a song. _Here Comes the Sun,_ by the Beatles.

She stood, taking his hand, and he pulled her in close so that they could sway together, in harmony. He spun her around, before allowing her to do a twirl, pulling her back to him, and kissing the top of her head. She couldn't have asked for a better first dance.

"God, Katie, you're amazing," he mumbled to her.

She giggled to herself, "Not so bad yourself, Jethro."

"I don't mean the dancing."

"I know." He spun her around again. "Did you ever see this comin'?"

"Oh, no. Not remotely."

He grinned, and his grin was so bright that it made him look ten years younger; it was a look he reserved only for her. "Because I knew from the day we met. And then you said yes. Made me the happiest man alive."

"Well, Gibbs, I didn't want regrets. Nothing is guaranteed. I could walk out that door and never walk back in."

"Katie, I swear, as long as I'm alive, that'll never happen to you."

"You can't promise that," she insisted.

"I can. I do. I promise. As long as we both shall live, I told you. I vowed to you."

"I made that vow too."

"Katie, as long as we both shall live… I love you."

"I love you too, Jethro. And I made that vow too. As long as we both shall live."


End file.
